IFFR announces first Voices titles

46ste International Film Festival Rotterdam
25 januari - 5 februari 2017

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) has announced the first titles in its selection for the Voices section at IFFR 2017. In Voices – one of the festival’s four programme sections – IFFR shows films driven by their story or theme, many of which are by established directors with a distinct, assured voice. IFFR will announce the nominees for the Big Screen Competition and the rest of the Voices selection in early January.

Alongside this main programme, Voices is made up of the programme elements Limelight, Scopitone and IFFR Live.

Voices
In Voices, IFFR presents a harvest of interesting recent films – future arthouse cinema classics. Hakim Belabbes’ Sweat Rain (Morocco, 2016), about a man who will do anything to keep his family’s land, will have its European première in Rotterdam. Belabbes, originally a documentary maker, retains his poetic style in this fiction film. New Wave director Amir Muhammad made Voyage to Terengganu (Malaysia, 2016) – an at times surreal portrayal of colourful characters from Terengganu in East Malaysia – with Badrul Hisham Ismail. Filmmaker Milagros Mumenthaler also returns to IFFR with her playful family drama La idea de un lago (Switzerland/Argentina/Qatar, 2016), in which photographer Inès wants to know the identity of her vanished father but has only an old photograph to go on. Alongside fiction films, series will also be shown. These include the Swedish/French series Midnight Sun (2016) – a dark new mystery from the makers of The Bridge.

The Voices main programme also includes the Big Screen Competition. The eight titles nominated for the VPRO Big Screen Award will be announced in early January.

Clockwise: Sweat Rain, Voyage to Terengganu, La idea de un lago, Midnight Sun

Limelight
The Limelight programme section gives an overview of international award winners, festival favourites and remarkable films that will screen in Dutch cinemas after the festival. For example, the poetic, committed documentary Burma Storybook (the Netherlands, 2017) by filmmaker Petr Lom will have its world première this edition. With the award-winning Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu has created an impressive, darkly comical sketch of the family and friends of a person who has died, meeting for a dinner. A whirlwind of themes, frustrations and arguments tears through the apartment where the film is set. The Hubert Bals Fund supported the mystical Wolf and Sheep (Afghanistan, 2016) by filmmaker Shahrbanoo Sadat, which deals with old traditions, customs and stories that are still a vital component of a small shepherding community in the mountains of Afghanistan.

Clockwise: Burma Storybook, Sieranevada, Wolf and Sheep

Scopitone
The Scopitone programme (admission free) shows remarkable music documentaries in the Kleine Zaal of the Rotterdam Schouwburg. The fifth edition of this series of film will again be introduced by music connoisseur and film collector Fenno Werkman, and includes the documentaries Blackhearts (Norway, 2016) and Cairo Jazzman(Germany, 2017).

Blackhearts (left), Cairo Jazzman (right)

IFFR Live
IFFR announced the first five titles of IFFR Live, which screens film premières in Rotterdam simultaneously in dozens of cinemas elsewhere in the world, in mid-December. The programme is now complete – the sixth and final title is Prevenge (GB, 2016) by Alice Lowe, the directorial debut from the British actress and screenwriter. A humorous, feminist horror film about a pregnant widow who loses herself in a bloody string of murders on behalf of her unborn child.

Prevenge

An overview of the titles already confirmed for the Voices section is given below. The rest of the selection, as well as the Big Screen Competition titles, will be announced early in January.

VOICES: Voices
Premieres
Atrás hay relámpagos, Julio Hernández Cordón, Mexico/Costa Rica, world premiere
A Bride for Rip Van Winkle, Iwai Shunji, Japan, European premiere
Fake, Mori Tatsuya, Japan, European premiere
The Mole Song – Hong Kong Capriccio, Miike Takashi, Japan, European premiere
Sweat Rain, Hakim Belabbes, Morocco, European premiere
Town in a Lake, Jet Leyco, the Philippines, European premiere
Voyage to Terengganu, Amir Muhammad, Badrul Hisham Ismail, Malaysia, European premiere
We The Workers, Huang Wenhai, Hong Kong/China, world premiere
The World of Wubbe, Jan Louter, the Netherlands, world premiere
Also confirmed
Au-delà des murs, Hervé Hadmar, France, TV series
Beau séjour, Nathalie Basteyns, Kaat Beels, Belgium, TV series
The Donor, Zang Qiwu, China
Ember, Zeki Demirkubuz, Turkey
Gimme Danger, Jim Jarmusch, USA
The Girl with All the Gifts, Colm McCarthy, Great Britain
Hermia & Helena, Matías Piñeiro, Argentina/USA
La idea de un lago, Milagros Mumenthaler, Switzerland/Argentina/Qatar
Jean of the Joneses, Stella Meghie, USA/Canada
Lola Upside Down, Ulrika Bengts, Finland, TV series
Midnight Sun, Björn Stein & Måns Mårlind, France/Sweden, TV series
National Treasure, Marc Munden, Great Britain, TV series
A Quiet Dream, Zhang Lu, South Korea
La ragazza del mondo, Marco Danieli, France/Italy
The Road to Mandalay, Midi Z, Taiwan/France/Germany/Myanmar
The Eye's Dream, Sato Hisayasu, Japan/USA
Three, Johnnie To, Hong Kong/China
The Wedding Ring, Rahmatou Keïta, Niger
A Woman from Jawa, Garin Nugroho, Indonesia

VOICES: Limelight
Premières
Burma Storybook, Petr Lom, the Netherlands/Myanmar, world premiere
Het doet zo zeer, Heleen van Royen, the Netherlands, world premiere
De keuze van mijn vader, Yan Ting Yuen, the Netherlands, world premiere
Knife in the Clear Water, Wang Xuebo, China, European premiere
Also confirmed
After the Storm, Kore-eda Hirokazu, Japan
American Honey, Andrea Arnold, Great Britain/USA
Asura: City of Madness, Kim Sungsoo, South Korea
Beyond the Mountains and Hills, Eran Kolirin, Israel/Germany/Belgium
Free Fire, Ben Wheatley, Great Britain
The Handmaiden, Park Chan-wook, South Korea
Harmonium, Fukada Koji, Japan/France
Jackie, Pablo Larraín, USA
Lady Macbeth, William Oldroyd, Great Britain
The Night of a 1000 Hours, Virgil Widrich, Luxembourg/Austria/Belgium/the Netherlands
Orpheline, Arnaud des Pallières, France
Paterson, Jim Jarmusch, USA
Personal Shopper, Olivier Assayas, France
Porto, Gabe Klinger, France/Poland/Portugal/USA
Raw, Julia Ducournau, France/Belgium
La región salvaje, Amat Escalante, Mexico/Denmark/France/Germany/ Norway/Switzerland
Réparer les vivants, Katell Quillévéré, France/Belgium
Sieranevada, Cristi Puiu, Romania/France/Bosnia and Herzegovina
Train to Busan, Yeon Sangho, South Korea
Tramontane, Vatche Boulghourjian, Lebanon
White Sun, Deepak Rauniyar, Nepal/USA/Qatar/the Netherlands
Wolf and Sheep, Shahrbanoo Sadat, Afghanistan/Denmark/Sweden/France

VOICES: Scopitone
Premières
Cairo Jazzman, Atef Ben Bouzid, Germany, world premiere
New Voices in an Old Flower, Quino Piñero, Ethiopia/Spain/Great Britain, European premiere
War of Words, Craig Tuohy & Tom Worth, United Kingdom, international premiere
Also confirmed
Blackhearts, Fredrik Horn Akselsen & Christian Falch, Norway
Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape, Zack Taylor, Great Britain
Placebo: Alt.Russia, Charlie Targett-Adams, Great Britain
Two Trains Runnin', Sam Pollard, USA
The Wonderful Kingdom of Papa Alaev, Noam Pinchas &Tal Barda, France/Israel

VOICES: IFFR Live
Premières
The Man, Charlotte Sieling, Denmark, world premiere
Also confirmed
The Giant, Johannes Nyholm, Sweden/Denmark
Home, Fien Troch, Belgium
Mister Universo, Tizza Covi & Rainer Frimmel, Austria/Italy
Prevenge, Alice Lowe, Great Britain
A Wedding, Stephan Streker, Belgium/France/Luxembourg/Pakistan

International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR) – one of the biggest cultural events in the Netherlands and one of the biggest audience film festivals in the world – will take place in 2017 from Wednesday 25 January through Sunday 5 February. With the latest feature films, documentaries, short films, exhibitions, performances and talkshows, for twelve days Rotterdam is the exciting, global capital of cinema. The meeting place is festival heart de Doelen. There will be live performances, debates and Q&As with filmmakers and actors, and every film evening closes with a fantastic party in the Rotterdamse Schouwburg. For more information, see IFFR.com. Official ticket sales start on Friday, 20 January.